Climate change has many corollaries and one of them is a steady increase in the sea levels. The increase in the sea levels is pushing saltwater into U.S wetlands, causing devastating effects on coastal forests from Florida to as far north as New Jersey. In the article “Ghost Forests: How Rising Seas Are Killing Southern U.S. Woodlands” by Roger Real Drouin he states that “destruction of coastal forests is expected to become a worsening problem worldwide.” The saltwater invasion is killing trees from Florida’s hammock islands to North Carolina’s swamp forests.
(Photo courtesy of Roger Drouin/Yale e360)
As per Marcelo Ardón, assistant professor of ecosystem ecology at North Carolina State University, besides the killing off wetland forests saltwater intrusion is also endangering habitant species, such as the red-cockaded woodpecker and drum and catfish that depend on healthy wetland forests are being affected, as well. Climate change will keep affecting sea level and it will continue to increase, resulting in wetland forests eventually being replaced with open water.
